


The Sarcasm of a Soldier and the Delusion of a Dreamer

by VaderNuwandaPadme



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Mostly Feelings because I´m incapable of writing good action, Obi-Wan and Satine are an old married couple, Obi-Wan and Satine as Parent-figures, Obi-Wan has PTSD (everyone has), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, What-If, basically the OT with Satine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:15:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26272471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VaderNuwandaPadme/pseuds/VaderNuwandaPadme
Summary: What if Satine had survived The Lawless? What if Obi-Wan had returned to her after he had lost everything else? What if she then had said the word? Would things have gone different? This is basically the OT and what would have happened if Satine had followed Obi-Wan on Tatooine to watch over Luke together.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze, Satine Kryze & Luke Skywalker, anakin skywalker/padme amidala (mentioned)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 50





	1. The Past is Inevitable...

**Author's Note:**

> I tried not to change too much of the original action by still letting Satine do whatever I think she would have done in that situation. I don´t know if I managed to portrait her character correctly, though. Obi-Wan and Satine deserve at least some happiness , even if that means nineteen years away from everything they´ve fought for. And I love Satine far too much to not try to give her a longer, better life. You know the OT, so I think you all know who´s going to make it and who isn´t, I haven´t changed anything about that. But we all know, no one’s ever truly gone, so I don´t want to rank this story as “major character´s death”. Our favourite Jedi will still be there all the way to watch over his loved ones. 
> 
> I don´t know if I am going to finish this Fic. I really want to, but I´m in my last year of high school, so I don´t know how much time I will have for writing. I still wanted to post this, because so I have a greater motivation for writing.
> 
> I don´t have a uploading scedule, I just upload whenever I found the time to write and edit a chapter.
> 
> I am sorry if there are gramatical or spelling errors, English isn´t my first language.
> 
> Hope you enjoy :)

Though it was still early in the morning, the air was already so hot and dry Ben Kenobi felt like entering in a giant oven once he left the cool shelter of his house. It´s been nineteen years and he still wasn´t used to the extreme climate on this deserted desert-planet. But he couldn´t stay inside all day. Especially not now, when the very reason he spent his exile on Tatooine - and not a more civilised and, most of all, cooler planet - had managed to get himself into trouble – again.

  
In that aspect he was exactly like his reckless father. Ben had had to save his former padawan out of countless dangerous (and avoidable!) situations. And once he didn´t have his padawan anymore and dared to hope he could finally find some peace in his life, Luke decided to follow his father´s footsteps and drive the old man mad. Well, at least those “rescue missions” in which he had to pick the young boy up somewhere on the planet and had to clean the wounds he got himself by colliding with some rocks while trying to shoot wamp rats, gave him something to do.

  
Living as a hermit after thirty years of constant training, teaching, and fighting was hard and without Satine he surely would have gone insane. She had been his anchor after his world was shattered all those years ago and has been till now. Accepting the fact that they wouldn´t longer be able to fight for peace and justice as the two idealists had done all those years had been hard. But to do so, they would have had to leave Tatooine, to leave Luke unprotected and by doing so risk Luke getting found by the emperor and his apprentice what would resolve into the young man´s death – either by losing his life or by losing his soul. That was something neither of them was willing to do, so they stayed, trying to forget the fact they were living in an empire and trying to help each other healing the wounds the Clone Wars had caused them both.

  
By now the former Jedi had nearly reached the dune on which he could sense Luke, only to find the boy surrounded by sandpeople.

  
-

Artoo watched helplessy as two sandpeople dragged the blonde boy behind them while two other cannibalized the boy´s speeder and C-3PO. Feverishly he was searching for a way to save his friends without getting them in even more danger or putting to risk his entire mission; when he suddenly heard a loud call rang out over the dunes. Looking for the source of this noise he turned his head, discovering a figure in a brown coat hurrying over to where the abandoned Luke was lying on the ground.

  
Wait. He knew that kind of coat, had seen it everyday for three year, had collected it dozens of times, whenever his former master had thrown it away carelessly in a fight. Who was foolish enough to show themselves wearing the robes of a Jedi? Sure, this was a remoted planet with lots and lots of strangely clothed inhabitants, yet even here imperial soldiers patruilled every now and then, mercyless arresting (if not worse) each an everyone showing sympathy for this demonised order. Artoo only knew one man who would dare to wear such clothing despite the circumstances. It seemed like he had finally found the man he came all this way for. Still, the little droid hesitated leaving his shelter. By now he couldn´t be entirely sure about the identity of their saviour. It was much safer to keep quiet a little longer, at least until he could be sure the man in front of them meant no harm.

  
-

Once the sandpeople had run away, Ben hurried over to Luke´s moveless figure, irrational high worry creasing in his cheast. He didn´t know what he would do if anything had happened to the boy. He leant down over the young man, a worry line on his forehead the only viewable sign of his inner turmoil of feelings, checking his pulse and searching for any kind of wounds his encounter with the Tusken Raiders could have left, with a routine won in years of war. Once his fingers felt the steady throb of blood, his heart filled with incredible belief. Thank force, the boy was unharmed and only unconscious, he would be completely fine once woken up.

  
Suddenly he heard a droid sound and sensed a small movement in a crevice over him. Ben froze. The sound was strangely familiar. Could it be, that…? No, that was impossible. There were millions of astromechs in the galaxy which all sounded similar. Why should he be here if the odds were that clear against it? Wiping of his hood he stared at the dark hole the too-well-known sound came from. “Hello there!” he said. The crevice was too dark as that he could have been able to tell the astromech unit, let alone to tell if it was him. He turned his head to face the opening. “Come here, my little friend. Don´t be afraid!” The answer was a mixture of beeping sounds.

  
He would have recognised this voice anywhere! But still, it´s been nineteen years since he had last heard it speak, so it could well be he was just mistaken. “Stop it, Ben! There´s no reason for him to be here!” He told himself. He then faced again the opening to answer the worried question of the droid. “Oh, don´t worry, he´ll be alright.”

  
In that moment Luke woke up and the former Jedi turned his attention to the slightly confused boy and helped him into a sitting position. “What happened?” the blond boy asked, blinking to get used to the sudden brightness. “Rest easy, son, you've had a busy day. You're fortunate you're still in one piece.” Still blinking Luke looked up at his saviour. “Ben? Ben Kenobi! Boy, am I glad to see you!” He tried standing up on his own, failing. Ben helped him on a nearby stone, starting softly with his planned reprimand. During that he constantly avoided looking at the astromech unit that now had left its shelter.

  
“The Jundland wastes are not to be travelled lightly. Tell me young Luke, what brings you out this far?” The young man pointed at the crevice. “Oh, this little droid! I think he's searching for his former master... I've never seen such devotion in a droid before... there seems to be no stopping him. He claims to be the property of an Obi-Wan Kenobi. Is he a relative of yours? Do you know who he's talking about?”

  
First the old man didn´t answer. He stared at the R2 unit in front of him. It was him! No doubt of it! The sight of R2D2 threw him into a sea of flashbacks. Seeing his little friend well and functional brought warm feelings to his heart. Yet the memory of their last parting let his heart be shattered again. But why was he here? And why did Artoo claim to be his droid? In addition to that – and that was far worse – came the fact being called Obi-Wan Kenobi. No one, not even Satine, had called him by his full former name in over nineteen years.

  
Taken back he sunk down on a rock next to Luke, scratching his scruffy beard. He kept looking into the nowhere, still lost deeply in his thoughts. “Obi-Wan Kenobi... Obi-Wan? Now that´s a name I haven't heard in a long time... a long time.” “I think my uncle knew him. He said he was dead.” That comment amused him. “Oh, he's not dead.” After another short moment of thinking he added: “Not yet.” Luke stared at him in surprise. “You know him!” “Well of course, of course I know him. He's me! I haven't gone by the name Obi-Wan since - oh before you were born.” “Then the droid does belong to you.” Ben gave Artoo an amused, yet slightly confused look. “Don't seem to remember ever owning a droid. Very interesting...” Being a Jedi he had never owned anything, in theory not even his clothes, not even R4. On top of that, R2 had always been Anakin´s droid, his companion in space battle, his voice of reason when he himself, Padmé or Rex hadn´t been around. Why did Artoo now claim to be his property?  
The distant cry of a Tusken causes him to suddenly look up at the overhanging cliffs. “I think we better get indoors. The Sandpeople are easily startled but they will soon be back and in greater numbers.” His protege nodded in agreement. Artoo let out a pathetic beep causing Luke to remember something. He looked around, searching. “Threepio!”

  
That statement is enough for Ben to freeze again. C-3PO was here, too? Well, when one thought about it, that wasn´t so unnatural, the two droids had always been inseparable – as long as Artoo didn´t had to go off saving his master´s neck, of course. He was glad to know both of his mechanic friends had survived their time departed. Still, their sudden appearance confronted him with a former life he had long abandoned. He had always known that he couldn´t hide himself from his past forever, yet he´d always hoped this day to be far more ahead. Now he would have to face his past life, maybe would even be forced to live it again – a life full of war, death, and suffering – a life without Satine.

  
Trying to shake off those unpleasant thoughts he went over where Threepio was lying in the sand, being shaken by Luke to turn on his systems. “Where am I? I must have taken a bad step...” His voice was as metallic and monotone as the old man remembers. Luke meanwhile tried to help the protocol droid up. “Can you stand? We've got to get out of here before the Sandpeople return.” “I don't think I can make it. You go on, Master Luke. There's no sense in you risking yourself on my account. I'm done for.”

  
Ben was unable to restrain a small grin. He was just as annoying and pathetic as always. And as always Artoo tried to speak sense to him – and so did Luke. “No, you're not. What kind of talk is that?” The two men help the battered droid to his feet. “Quickly, son... they're on the move.”

  
-

An elderly woman with sternly features and bright blue eyes that matched her simple but elegant robe, stood waiting in the door frame as the four of them reached Kenobi´s hideout, a small house on top of a dune, far away from any civilisation. “What was it this time? Another crash landing of your speeder, Luke?” she greeted the approaching group, a slight tone of sarcasm in her voice. The younger man promptly started defending himself: “This time it wasn´t my fault, Satine! I was fol-lowing this little runaway here, only to be caught up by sandpeople.” He pointed accusingly at Ar-too, who tried to look guilty – which he failed greatly at.

  
Satine narrowed her eyes. This droid seemed to be slightly familiar. But she had seen a lot of dif-ferent astromechs before, they all looked quite similar. The second droid, on the other hand… No, there was no way this could be Padmé´s. Protocol droids of the same construction year looked even more alike than astromechs. And yet… Satine slightly shook her head as if to shake her thoughts out of her brain by doing so. She would consider this later.

  
“Well, in this case, I must say I´m glad to see you unharmed and alive. I hope you´ve found a non-violent solution to solve this conflict?” she said with a significant look at Luke´s saviour. “Of course, my lady. My wife taught me to always search for a peaceful outcoming. After all, she´s a pacifist.” Ben gave her his characteristic smirk. “If you say so.” She rolled her eyes, unable to hide her own grin. “Now come in, it´s getting hot out here.”

  
After the droids – which she avoided to look at a second time, the two of them next to each other simply were a too strange and too familiar sight at the same time - and Luke had entered the house, she held her husband back. “Was there something else? You look worried.” Ben´s startled look only hardened the suspicion formed in her head at the sight of the droids – a suspicion she desperately hoped against all reasons to be proven wrong. He avoided looking her into the eyes and tried to back away, but as she didn´t loosen her grip on his arm he sighed. “The droids came here because of me. They´re Anakin´s.” Taken aback she let go of his arm. Having it confirmed forced her to confront the consequences the appearance of two witnesses of their abandoned past would undeniably have. “I hoped I was wrong. Well, being found by befriended droids is much better than being found by one of the Empire´s probots.”, she tried of making the situation light. Ben only shook his head slightly. “There´s no huge difference. Once one side found us, it´s only a matter of time the other side does so too.”

He gave her a sad smile, then tightened his shoulders and went into the living room, where Luke was working on the damaged Threepio. Satine followed shortly after, worry lines all over her face, staying next to the door and observing the scene before her. After Ben´s confirmation she remembered the astromech unit. It had followed Anakin and his padawan Ahsoka as they landed on Mandalore, had stood in the corner of the politic meetings at Padmé´s she had attended, had been on a holo in Padmé´s private rooms. She remembered her dear friend telling her how Anakin and herself had exchanged droids, Artoo for Threepio, as sign of their friendship – and their love, even though Padmé never had said that out loud. She remem-bered the golden handiwork of Anakin´s following the two women in the senate building, com-plaining about everything and nothing, still always welcomed on Padmé´s side.

  
-

Ben sat down next to Artoo, patting his blue head. With a ow voice, so that only his little blue friend could hear him, he said: “Hello little one. I didn´t get the chance to say this before, but – I´m glad to see you again.” The small droid beeped happily. Luke stopped his cleaning process. “You know each other?” “Quite well, actually. We fought together in the Clone Wars, he was your father´s astro-mech.” Luke shook his head, laughing in disbelief. “No, my father didn't fight in the wars. He was a navigator on a spice freighter.”

  
Ben and Satine shared a worried look. They both had known that they couldn´t keep the truth from Luke forever, yet they had hoped to have a few more years before they were forced to open old wounds. Now it seemed like there was no other option than telling him everything - or at least as much as was necessary. The more he knew the greater was the chance for the Empire to find out about his heritage. ′He needs to know′, Satine mouthed. ′I know.′ Ben replied in the same way. ′You don´t have to do this, I could talk to him.′ Her shining blue eyes were full of worry and concern. Ben smiled. She knew exactly how he felt. Yet this was about his brother, his son, so he needed to give him the information needed, no one else. ′Don´t worry, I´ll be fine′, he mouthed back. ′Should I leave the two of you alone?′ ′Only if you want to. I´d prefer it if you´d stay, though.′ Satine gave him a small smile and a nod and leaned back against the wall. Ben took a deep breath and then allowed his memories, which he had kept concealed from himself for so long, to float him.

  
“That's what your uncle told you. He didn't hold with your father's ideals. Thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved.” Luke starred at him in disbelief. “You fought in the Clone Wars?” “Yes, I was once a Jedi Knight the same as your father.” Leaning back, he fixed his gaze on a place only he could see. Places filled with blaster shots, shouted orders, full of white armours, bat-tle droids and buzzing lightsabres. Full of old friends not forgotten, but long gone.

  
“I wish I'd known him.” Luke´s sad voice was distant, nearly lost in the loudness of his memories. Ben forced himself to turn his head to give him a small smile. “He was the best star-pilot in the gal-axy, and a cunning warrior.” Those were things anyone who knew Anakin Skywalker could have told the boy. And yet he was unable to give a more precise description – thinking of his lost son and brother was too painful, even now, nineteen years later. “I understand you've become quite a good pilot yourself.” ′Exactly, that´s the best thing to do, try to change the topic as soon as possible. Coward.′ In a much more silent voice he managed to add: “And he was a good friend.” Well, at least something personal.

  
“Which reminds me: I have something here for you” Ben got up and went over to a chest, clearly searching something. ′Bravo, Ben, you´ve done it again.′ The small voice in the back of his head was dripping of sarcasm. He ignored it. Finally, he found what he had been looking for and returned to Luke, a small silver thing of the shape of a tube in his hands. “Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough.” There was no need to tell the boy the true story of how he got the lightsaber. He still was haunted by Anakin´s screams of pain as well as his guilt. “…but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damned-fool idealistic crusade like your father did.” “What is it?” Luke looked excited at the relict of his father.  
“Your fathers lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster.” The young man started examining the weapon and pushed a button on the handle, which caused a blue, flickering blade to appear. The former Jedi continued his explanations. At least this was something he could talk about without his hearth being ripped into pieces – again.

“An elegant weapon for a more civilized time.” Satine, who still stood near the door, carefully watching the two men in front of her, snorted. She couldn´t see why a lightsaber should be elegant. More powerful, yes, it could reflect blaster shots and there was hardly a material that could hold of its strikes, but that only made that weapon more violent. More brutal. Her husband didn´t seem to have noticed her, still lost too much in his thoughts. “For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire.” Luke seemed to have followed his own thoughts during the older one´s monologue. He finally dared to ask: “How did my father die?”

  
Satine made a step into the room, ready to interrupt this conversation before it reached too dan-gerous territory. Ben stopped her with a look. He could not run away from this forever. And Luke had to have the answer to that question. He hesitated another moment, searching for a way to give his nephew in all but blood the facts he needed to know without confronting him with the full truth.

  
“A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Em-pire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father.” That had to be close enough. And it was the truth – from a certain point of view. For him, Anakin and Vader were two completely different persons. “Now the Jedi are all but extinct. Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force.”

  
“The Force?” His monologue was interrupted by a confused Luke. Ben stared at him in disbelief. Then he realised how much information he had kept away from that boy for his own good. Maybe he had been a bit overprotective by not even telling him about the force. He should have known that neither Owen nor Beru would have told their nephew about it. “Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.”  
This time he got interrupted by Artoo. The little droid had enough of listening to the humans talk-ing, he had an important message to deliver. Ben stood up and went over to the astromech. “Now, let's see if we can figure out why you´re here, my little friend. And where you come from.” “I saw part of the message he was...” Luke was cut short as a hologram of a young woman was projected on the floor in front of Artoo.

  
“I seem to have found it.” Ben´s voice was shaking. He stared horrified at the projection in front of him – and so did Satine. They had seen this face before. Well, not exactly this face, but the familiari-ty to Senator Amidala´s, to Padmé´s face was obvious. This was unmistakably a recording of Leia Organa, Padmé´s daughter – and Luke twin sister. Her face, her appearance, even her voice, as she starts speaking, were exactly like her mother´s.  
”General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.”

  
The recording vanished, leaving the three starring into the nowhere. One overwhelmed by the beauty of the girl, two in shock-free sentimentality because of her identity. Ben was the first to break the silence, addressing Luke.

  
“You must learn the ways of the Force if you're to come with me to Alderaan.” Luke burst out laughing. “Alderaan? I'm not going to Alderaan. I've got to go home. It's late, I'm in for it as it is.” Ben stayed serious. “I need your help, Luke. She needs your help. I'm getting too old for this sort of thing.” But the boy was hardly paying attention. He jumped up and started franticly to collect his tools. “I can't get involved! I've got work to do! It's not that I like the Empire. I hate it! But there's nothing I can do about it right now. It's such a long way from here.”

  
Ben looked slightly disappointed. He had kind of expected the young man to react more like his father, who would have enthusiastically headed into the presenting adventure. He needed some-one to come with him help him, someone younger than him and Satine. “That's your uncle talking.” Luke sighed, throwing up his hands in resignation. “Oh, God, my uncle. How am I ever going to ex-plain this?” Ben started one last attempt. “Learn about the Force, Luke.” Luke looked somehow defeated. “Look, I can take you as far as Anchorhead. You can get a transport there to Mos Eisley or wherever you're going.” The old man turned his gaze back into the nowhere. “You must do what you feel is right, of course.“

  
Now Satine entered the discussion, trying to solve the conflict like she always did. “Luke, could you give Ben and me some privacy please, to discuss this matter? It won´t take long, I promise.” Luke shrugged. “Yeah, of course. I´ll wait outside and get the speeder ready.” “Thank you.”

  
\- After the boy had left, Satine sat down next to her husband. “Are you okay?” She reached out to smooth out the worry lines on his face. Even though she, too, was shaken from memories, it was Ben who had been hit much harder, and she knew that. It was his past, his losses, far more than her own.

  
“I don´t know. I think I just need some time. That was all pretty unexpected.” He gave her a weak smile. “Do you want to talk about it?” “Not now. I want my memories to settle, not to stir them up again.” She nodded in agreement, yet the concerned look stayed on her face. She knew that she could help him best by simply being there for him, yet she wished there were more she could do.

  
“When will you leave?” There was no need in arguing if Ben would follow the call to Alderaan or not, a friend had called for his help and now he would come to save them, even if that meant his death. She experienced it first-hand, as she herself had called for help, after her loss of Mandalore. He had come to assist her, without a second thought, risking his life to get her out of there. Satine loved him for this feature as much as she hated him.

  
“As soon as possible. I think I simply accept Luke´s offer to get me to Mos Eisley.“ “Do you think it´s wise to take the boy along? He´s far too young.” “We don´t even know if he will come with me. And he´s nineteen, Satine. Ahsoka was much younger in her first battle. I was far younger.” “That doesn´t make it any better. He is still nearly a child.” “Their paths had to cross some time. It´s the will of the force, I can´t keep them apart forever. And I can protect him best by keeping him close to me.” Satine was about to contradict, then changed her mind. “Maybe you´re right.” He smirked. “I´m always right.” She gave a brief laughter before she regained serious. “I better start packing, then, we´ll be gone quite some time.” She got up and went over to their bedroom. “Good idea.” Ben lifted himself up and started to follow her yet stopped abruptly.

  
“Wait! We´ll be gone?” She turned around. “Of course. Or did you think I would let you go on this mission alone? No way!” Her words enlightened her partner´s face, but then it darkened again. He was glad she decided to come with him, he couldn´t even stand the thought of leaving her. On the other hand, they had to enter the rebellion if they carried out this mission. Which meant they would be in the middle of a war – again.

  
“Once we reach Alderaan we´ll be in the middle of the rebellion, midst the civil war zone. I thought you never wanted to go near a battlefield again.” She sighed. “I know. But we have been thrown into this and we can´t escape it anymore. I once said I will never be part of that war. And I won´t, at least not as soldier or general. But being a pacifist doesn´t mean I won´t defend myself – or the ones I love. Maybe the rebellion needs a diplomat. Not for fighting, but for preventing deaths. And most of all” she stopped throwing clothing into a bag to look into Ben´s face. Her voice softened. “I´ve already lost you thrice. I won´t lose you a fourth time.” Ben cleared his throat. “Well, that way I have at least someone fighting next to me who will be my safe death. It may not be a reckless brother/son, but a stubborn wife will do as well.” Satine rolled her eyes.

“The sarcasm of a soldier.”

“The delusion of a dreamer.”

Chuckling they returned to silently packing the few things they owned into a bag.


	2. ... And so is the Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They hadn´t yet travelled far as they came past the ruins of a Jawas´ sandcrawler. Luke stopped the speeder and all three got out, examining the scattered bodies and smouldering rubble in horror.
> 
> Luke decides to follow Obi-Wan and Satine to Alderaan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is much shorter than the last, but I didn´t find a better way to cut this.

They hadn´t yet travelled far as they came past the ruins of a Jawas´ sandcrawler. Luke stopped the speeder and all three got out, examining the scattered bodies and smouldering rubble in horror. Satine´s throat was tight up and she felt hollowed as she let her gaze wander over the place of violence. The last time she had seen that many civilians slaughtered in one place was during the Civil War of Mandalore, four decades in the past. She of course had heard the rumours and stories of the mass slaughtering ordered by the Chancellor - she herself was a witness of the genocide done on the Jedis - yet she´d always thought – or hoped – that his evil influence didn´t reach till Ta-tooine. Nonetheless she now stood in front of something that was clearly the work of the Empire. They had obviously found their track to Tatooine, now it was only a matter of time till they found their current location. They needed to get away from this planet as soon as possible, and not only because of the princess´ call for help.

  
Luke was still studying the place of crime. “It looks like Sandpeople did this, all right. Look, here are Gaffi sticks, Bantha tracks.” He pointed at some tracks on the ground. “It's just... I never heard of them hitting anything this big before.” Ben kneeled down next to him. “They didn't. But we are meant to think they did. These tracks are side by side. Sandpeople always ride single file to hide their numbers.”

  
Luke finally recognised the sandcrawler. “These are the same Jawas that sold us Artoo and Threepio.” So they definitely would be tracking them down. The Empire may not yet know who the droids came here for, but once they did, they all were in grave danger. Well, they already were, looking at the evidence of a dozen corpses.

  
Ben was still investigating the tracks. “And these blast points, too accurate for Sandpeople. Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise.” Satine finally found her voice again. “That I could have told you from the very beginning. Not even sandpeople are that brutal. In addition, the Jawas would have closed themselves into their transporter once they´d notices Tusken Raiders entering their area, they wouldn´t have come out, trying to trade like they did.” Luke couldn´t bring any sense to that. “Why would Imperial troops want to slaughter Jawas?” Satine looked demonstratively at the two droids next to the speeder. The boy eventually put two and two together.

  
“If they traced the robots here, they may have learned who they sold them to. And that would lead them home!” He rushed over to his speeder, ignoring Ben´s warning. “Wait, Luke! It's too danger-ous.” “Then follow him.” Satine´s voice was full of the natural authority the years as duchess had given her. “The stormtroopers might still be there, don´t let him go there alone. He needs you, no matter what direction events take from here.” “What about you?” “I know how to defend myself, remember? Besides, they´ve been here already, they won´t come back that soon.” He hesitated for a moment, then he nodded briefly, sprinting after Luke´s speeder and jumping onto it once he was near enough, ignoring Luke´s startled expression. Back in his Jedi days, actions like that had been part of his daily schedule, but today even this most easy practice turned out to be more diffi-cult than he would like to admit.

  
-

  
Satine followed the speeder with her eyes till he was out of sight. Then she turned around and started to collect the small bodies, gently placing them to a small hill. Her chest was filled with grief, silently mourning the death of each single Jawa despite never knowing them. Still, her face didn´t give away any of her emotions. The poker face she had constantly worn for forty years was still hard to lay down, especially since it had often been her only weapon, shielding her from seeming weak.  
Threepio silently got over and helped her. Once all corpses were in one place, Artoo ignited them, giving them a cremation. The trio stood around the fire in silence, staring into the flames. It was not a proper funeral, but better than none at all. After a while Threepio broke the silence, never being able to stay mute for long.

  
“I hope it´s not inappropriate to start a conversation in this situation, yet I don´t think we´ve been introduced before. My name is C-3PO, human-cyborg relations. It´s a pleasure to meet you.” A small smile curled the lips of her sterned face. Knowing the droid´s lose tongue it was only logical his databank had been reset after the events on Polis Massa. Despite having lost his memories, his habits of being tactless and stiff while desperately trying to be polite and correct had stayed the same. “Hello Threepio, I´m Satine Kenobi. I´ve known your prior master, Senator Amidala. She was a friend of mine.” Threepio tilted his head, confused though trying to hide it. “Curious. I can´t recall ever belonging to a Senator Amidala. But there seem to be many things I can´t recall.” Satine raised an eyebrow but didn´t ask further. They returned to respectful silent.

  
-

  
Artoo was the first to notice Luke´s return, he beeped to draw their attention to the red speeder appearing on the horizon. Satine watched carefully whilst the speeder came nearer. There were only two people sitting in it. Ben and Luke seemed to be unharmed, yet the blonde´s expression said everything. Grief and guilt rushed over her. Having lost both father and mother shortly after his birth, Owen and Beru had been his whole life, they had raised him, comfort him, loved him - he hadn´t known anything else. Seeing this boy who was like to her like the son she always withed to have but never got so heartbroken, also broke her heart into pieces.

  
She approached him, as he slowly got out of the speeder. Facing him she reached out to stroke his face. “I´m so sorry.” He nodded weary, accepting her sympathy, yet remaining silent. Satine longed to hug the boy, to give him the comfort he had lost, but she knew he didn´t like too much body contact, especially in rough situations. So all she could do was being there, not being able to help in any other way than giving Luke the space he needed. Ben came over trying to comfort the boy as well. Both could exactly relate to how he felt, they´d had to face enough losses in their past. “There's nothing you could have done, Luke, had you been there. You'd have been killed, too, and the droids would be in the hands of the Empire.”

  
Luke raised his head, looking into the old man´s face, his eyes full of sorrow and pain. “I want to come with you to Alderaan. There's nothing here for me now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father.” Ben put an arm around his shoulder, trying to give the boy something to hold on. “Then come. We need to get away from here.”


	3. A scruffy-looking nerf herder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visit at a cantina, two new friends and a little incidence

Once they´d reached Mos Eisley things became difficult again. The city was full of imperial troopers, clearly searching for something. It didn´t take long before their speeder was stopped by a small patrol. Without further ado, four of them started to investigate the droids while the leader ques-tioned Luke. “How long have you had these droids?” “About three or four seasons.” The boy re-plied, a little nervous, but with not a single hint that could prove he was lying. Satine couldn´t help but admire how Luke could be so settled and calm only hour after losing his family.

  
Ben interfered, playing the old senile uncle, decking Luke. “They're for sale if you want them.” The trooper ignored the old man´s comment. “Let me see your identification.” Luke started fumbling for his ID, not finding it on the first try and getting more and more nervous. Satine thought of rais-ing her voice, handing them her ID since she wasn´t actively wanted for, like her husband, as Ben addressed the soldier, his voice cool and controlled, yet not commanding, making a small gesture with his right hand.  
“You don't need to see his identification.” His counterpart promptly repeated his words, directing it at his fellows. “We don't need to see his identification.” “These are not the droids your looking for.” “These are not the droids we're looking for.” “He can go about his business.” “You can go about your business.” Luke stared at the old man in disbelief, visible confusion written over his face. Ben gave him an encouraging nod. “Move along.” Even that was repeated by the head trooper while he waved them through.  
Luke finally had composed himself enough to start the speeder. Satine lent forward to whisper something into her husband´s ear. “The Negotiator not trying to negotiate? That´s news.” He turned around, giving her his usual smirk. “That was a negotiation, only a short one. Yours would have taken far too long.”

  
Luke parked the speeder next to a pub, deeply lost in thoughts. “I can't understand how we got by those troopers. I thought we were dead.” Ben got out and offered – always the gentleman – his hand to Satine. “The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded. You will find it a pow-erful ally.” “Nice way to say you simply manipulated his mind” she murmured as she stood next to him. Luke ignored the bickering couple, watching the people passing by sceptically. “Do you really think we're going to find a pilot here that'll take us to Alderaan?” “Well, most of the best freighter pilots can be found here. Only watch your step. This place can be a little rough”, Ben answered. “I'm ready for anything.” Luke said, too optimistic for his own good, in Satine´s mind.

  
-

The five entered the smoke-filled cantina, passing an array of weird and exotic extra-terrestrials sitting and standing on a long metallic bar. Satine let her eyes wander over the strange creatures. “I wouldn’t trust any of them further as I could throw them.”, she murmured. “We don´t have to trust them, we only need to rely on their greed.” Ben answered, also scanning the room for potential pilots. “The last time I was on a ship with someone not trustworthy, this someone nearly blew eve-ryone up, remember?” “Only because he was paid to do so.” “No matter how much we can afford, the Empire will always pay more. And even if they didn´t, no one wants to cross paths with Palpat-ine.” “Till now nobody knows the droids belong to us. Besides, this time we neither threatened our enemy personally nor are we wanted. We´re both considered to be dead, that´s our advantage. We only need to be as quick as possible.” Satine gave a deep sight. “I hope you´re right. I start in-vestigating, then.” “Good luck.” Ben watched her disappearing in the crowd, as the voice of the bartender interrupted his thoughts.

“We don't serve their kind here!” Luke, who hadn´t been realising the demand was aimed at him, too distracted by the sight of so many unfamiliar and outlandish creatures, looked up in confusion. “What?” “Your droids. They'll have to wait outside. We don't want them here.” Luke looked at Ben, seeking for help. The old man thought for a moment, then said: “Maybe it would be best if you waited outside with them, my son.” “And where are you going?” “For a drink.” And with a smirk the Jedi had went off into the crowd, like his wife before him, searching for a pilot.

  
Luke sighed and turned around to the two droids. He didn´t intend to leave this place that soon. He patted a hand on Threepio´s shoulder. “Listen, why don't you wait out by the speeder. We don't want any trouble.” “I heartily agree with you sir.” He went outside, followed hesitantly by his little partner. Luke turned his attention back to the cantina, searching for his companions. Both Ben and Satine were talking to potential pilots, the woman to a young man with brown hair who was sprawl-ing in a corner, her husband to a hairy brown creature armed with a crossbow. He decided to stay near Ben at the bar, getting himself a drink.

  
Suddenly one of the aliens pulled on his arm, babbling something in a language he didn´t under-stand. He turned away, trying to ignore the creature, as he got pulled on his arm again. Now a hu-man with badly deformed features stood next to the alien, translating. “He doesn't like you.” “I'm sorry.” He tried to turn away again but was hold of by the human. “I don't like you either. Don't insult us. You just watch yourself. We're wanted men. I have the death sentence in twelve sys-tems.” Luke nodded, insecure, yet hiding it and trying to back out a third time. “I'll be careful than.” He was grabbed by the shoulder and violently turned to face the two. “You'll be dead.”

  
Ben, finally realising what was going on, stepped between the two men, trying to escalate the situ-ation. “This little one isn't worth the effort. Come let me buy you something...” The reaction of the human man wasn´t as peaceful as Ben had hoped, the man hit Luke in the chest, causing him to fly through the room into one of the tables. The noise made Satine become aware of the situation. She made a polite excuse to her interlocuter and headed over to her accompanists. The Wanted human pulled his blaster, ready to shoot that annoying boy and the old man who stepped between them – but he never was able to pull the trigger. A buzzing blue light appeared out of the sudden, cutting of first his arm and then the lower half of his body, so fast he had hardly time to react. Ben stayed in fighting stance for a few seconds, making sure there was no one left wanting a fight, then turned off his lightsaber, replacing it on his utility belt.

  
By now Satine had reached her men, helping Luke up from the floor. “Was that really necessary?” she hissed at Ben, pointing with her head at the corpse. “If we don´t want him to kill anyone else, yes.” “And why did it have to be with your lightsaber? Isn´t it enough that the Empire is already searching for us, did you need to give them a hint to our current location that is that obvious? You could have taken basically any of the blasters in this room!” “And how should I have gotten one of those without using the force, what would have been even more evident? Also, it would have tak-en more time. Did you want me to risk Luke´s life?” he hissed back. She only shook her head in an-noyed disbelief, turning her attention back on the still dizzy-looking boy. “Are you alright?” “I… I think so.”

  
Ben pointed at the Wookiee next to him, avoiding Satine´s frown. “This is Chewbacca. He's first-mate on a ship that might suit our needs.” He led them over to the table where Satine´s previous interlocuter was sitting, still sprawling cocksure on his seat. The four sat down next to him. “Nice to have your attention back that soon, my lady”, he greeted the Mandalorian who only snorted. Their short encounter had been enough for her to dislike the youngster and his smirky arrogance. Yet he seemed to be the potential pilot who wouldn´t kill them the first second they turned their back on him. His partner, on the other hand, seemed far more trustworthy.

  
The star pilot leant over to shake Luke and Ben´s hand. “Han Solo. I'm captain of the Millennium Falcon. Your lady told me you're looking for passage to the Alderaan system.” Ben resumed the negotiations. “Yes, indeed. If it's a fast ship.” Han leant back in disbelieve, staring incredulous at his potential passengers in front of him. “Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?” With his usual kind of irony Ben only raised an eyebrow. “Should I have?” Presumptuous the pilot started praising his ship, and himself, of course. Humility was not a word of his standard vocabulary. “It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs! I've outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?”

  
Satine and Ben exchanged a sceptical look. The youngster surely exaggerated. Yet, if he spoke true, this ship would be their fastest – and therefore safest – way to Alderaan. The old man turned back to the star pilot. “Only passengers. Myself, my wife, the boy, two droids, and no questions asked.” He placed special meaning in the last phrase and Satine noticed a slight movement of his right hand. Han though seemed to be stronger minded than the former Jedi had expected. “What is it? Some kind of local trouble?” Back to normal negotiation, then. Satine jumped in. “Let's just say we'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements.” Han gave a dry laughter. “Well, that's the trick, isn't it? And it's going to cost you something extra. Ten thousand in advance.”

  
Luke, who had remained silent till now, burst out, shocked by that – for his standards – inconceiva-bly high sum. “Ten thousand? We could almost buy our own ship for that!” His counterpart wasn´t impressed the slightest by this youthful outburst. “But who's going to fly it, kid! You? Besides, you can´t tell me you´re lower class people, no matter what you wear. Just look at the way your lady holds herself. Only nobles hold their head that high. These are difficult times. The rich should share their capital with us ordinaries.” He gave her a greasy smirk. Luke meanwhile hadn´t got anything after the first sentenced. Not to be taken for full had hurt his self-confidence, resulting in another sudden and passionate outburst. “You bet I could. I'm not such a bad pilot myself! We don't have to sit here and listen...” Ben reached out to get his protégé seated. “Calm down” he said to the boy. “You surely don´t mind me discussing this matter with my wife before we make our decision, do you?” Han shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.” He then turned to Chewbacca, starting a private conversa-tion.

  
Ben leant over to Satine. “What do you think of this?” he whispered. “Ten thousand is usury, we´ll never get that amount of money in such a short time. And I don´t like the thought of Bail having to pay for us. Luke might be right, a personal ship might come cheaper. Do you think you would be capable of flying us? You once were a fairly good pilote yourself.” “I might have been, yes, although I never liked it. Yet now” Ben gave a sight. “That´s nineteen years. I don´t want any risk. Besides, money is the least of Alderaan´s problems, I´m sure Bail will gladly fill up this mercenary.” Satine pondered for a moment, then gave a short nod. “Alright, we´ll do it. But I doubt ten thousand is enough to guarantee his mouth stays closed even long enough for us to reach Alderaan.” “Agreed.”

  
They both turned their attention back on the starpilot and his first-mate. “We haven't that much with us. But we could pay you two thousand now, plus fifteen when we reach Alderaan.” Han´s eyes opened in surprise. Seventeen thousand! He would finally be able to pay of his depts and still keep a remarkable sum. “Seventeen, huh! Okay. You guys got yourself a ship. We'll leave as soon as you're ready. Docking bay Ninety-four.” “Ninety-four” Ben repeated, memorizing the number. Han on the other hand stared at something behind their heads. “Looks like somebody's beginning to take an interest in your handiwork.”

  
Satine´s head flung around. Four Imperial stormtroopers had unnoticed by the trio entered the small cantina, questioning the bartender and examining the corpses of Luke´s attackers. She should have seen this coming. Beru´s and Owen´s death was enough evidence to show how sincerely the Empire wanted to get hold of the droids, there was no way that they wouldn´t have been able to track them. They should have positioned one of them as guard so they could head out the moment their enemy´s henchman had entered the room. Now they had merely seconds left before they´d be discovered. Wrapping her hood around her head and, most importantly, face, she leaped up to her feet, heading through the groups of aliens and their drinks towards the backexit, dragging a fuddled Luke behind her. Ben muttered a hasty goodbye to an amused Han, before following his wife´s example and hurrying out of the danger area.

  
Outside the building Satine slowed down, releasing Luke out of her firm grip, and turned around to hiss at her husband. “I told you using that thing would set them on our track directly! Thanks to you they know now exactly where we are and it´s only a matter of time until –“ “Now is not the time for “I told you so”s!” shot Ben back. “We need to get out of here as soon as possible. Luke, you´ll have to sell your speeder, otherwise we won´t be able to pay even the first two thousand.” The boy nodded in agreement, still a little in a daze because of the hastiness of their leave. “That's okay. I'm never coming back to this planet again, anyway.” Satine still frowned at Kenobi, her blue eyes spar-kling with anger. “Fine. You two´ll try to sell the speeder, I´m going to search our droids- if they ha-ven’t been being captured already by the Empire because of one old man´s stupidity!” With a final glare, she headed away.

Luke watched the hooded woman disappearing behind the next Eopie. “Should we really let her go on her own? I mean, with Stormtroopers searching for us and every-thing?” Ben glanced into the direction in which his wife had disappeared. “Oh, don´t worry, she will be fine. She´s a lot tougher than she looks. Besides, once she found Artoo, it´s the Troopers who are screwed, not her.” He laid a reassuring hand on the boy´s shoulder. “Come, son, we need to hurry up. We´ve got a speeder to sell.”


	4. Of Memories and Farewells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fateful memory and a takeoff

Satine found the two droids hiding behind some banthas in a dark corner near the pub they´d left them. Artoo beeped curiously as he saw her approaching on her own. “Miss Satine, I wonder what´s happened to Master Luke and Master Kenobi? They hopefully didn´t get themselves into trouble, did they? Oh Artoo, I told you we shouldn´t leave them alone!” “Don´t worry, Threepio they´re alright – as long as that geriatric doesn´t get the brilliant idea to show off his sword fighting” she answered dryly.

“Listen: We found someone to take us off this planet. So far for the positive news. The bad news: Ben dropped our cover. They don´t know who or where we are yet, but they´re chasing after us. In order to survive our take-off, we need to separate until we reach our docking bay.” The protocol droid´s stiff metallic eyes seemed to widen in horror. “To survive? Oh no! We´re all going to die! Artoo, what did you do this time? I don't know what all the trouble is about, but I'm sure it must be your fault! No, no, why do I have to die?”

Satine ignored the panicking droid, turning towards the little astromech. “I trust you to get you both there safely, without any further ado. The number of the bay is ninety-four. We´ll meet there in five minutes.” Artoo beeped in agreement and immediately turned around, commanding his golden friend to follow him. “Where are we going? We can´t leave Miss Satine alone, can we? I don´t trust you to get us anywhere near the docking bay without getting shot! Oh my!” He was cut of by another of Artoo´s beeps. “You watch your language!”

The old lady followed the bickering couple with her eyes until they disappeared behind the next building, then headed of in a different direction. She was glad to have a few minutes on her own. Today´s events had set her mind of racing, old and new memories, worries and terrors spinning around, cutting of her air. After nearly two decades with basically nothing to happen, she was completely thrown off track by the speed events had been closing in the last few hours.

  
Her greatest concern wasn´t the fact that they´d been thrown back into a war which had already cost her so much and which she thought to have left for good years ago, it wasn´t the sudden confrontation with a past whose wounds still hadn´t healed properly, it wasn´t the newest lost of friends and Luke´s shattered and devastated look on his face as he found out. It was a memory. A memory, stirred up, repeating itself over and over again, as if trying to tell her something, no matter how hard she tried to focus on something else.

The reminiscence was blurry, not because of the years that´d passed since the event but because of tears. The floor of the circular room was decorated with floral ornaments, creating an oval around a stretcher. It was covered with a white cloth, still showing the outlines of a human body, moveless, hard and cold. On the tribunes around the corpse sat various people in brown cloaks- strangers in her eyes, family in those of the dead man in front of them -, their faces hidden, heads bowed respectfully. On the stretcher´s head end stood a young man, wrapped in a similar cloak, on the face the same devastated look she had seen on Luke´s just hours ago. The silence in the room was only interrupted by the quiet sobs of a woman standing next to the dead body. The vision-like scene in front of her inner eye was her memory of Obi-Wan´s death.

  
When Luke had entered their home this morning, followed by those two fateful droids from another life, it had first been a dark premonition in the back of her head, nothing clear, only a bad feeling about this. Over the last few hours it had manifested into a unequivocally fear of a certain event, presenting itself to her in form of a reminiscence, now that she was alone. She was certain that Ben wouldn´t make it out alive of this new daring venture. Yes, they both weren´t yet that old and he had still most of his skills and wit left of his past self, yet he had changed too much. He had fallen apart and it had taken them nearly two decades to put them back together. In that process he had aged far more than those nineteen years, losing not only his physically, but also parts of his mentally strength as well as parts of himself.

She knew if anything happened to Luke (or her), Ben would blame himself for it, believing he failed them as he thought he failed Anakin. Losing one of them would leave him shattered once more and she doubted he would ever be able to stand up afterwards. He would throw himself in front of anything that could harm one of his loved ones, even if this meant his death, because he wouldn´t be able to live with that guilt. And as she highly disbelieved that this trip would be save, she disbelieved in Ben surviving the mission. And she couldn´t stop him from sacrificing himself any more than she could stop the suns from setting. Life had left her only one of her loved ones, only to let her watch him die with tied hands.

-

As the docking bay came into sight, she stopped for a second, inhaling deeply and pushing all of her troubling thought to the back of her head. Then, with one last look at possible persecutors, she entered the bay.

  
She found Chewbacca already waiting on the entrance, signalling her to hurry up boarding the ship. From the opposite direction Ben and Luke approached the circular room, followed by Threepio and Artoo who seemed to have met on the way. Hopefully they had stayed undetected, Satine thought, as she watched them hurrying towards her.

Shortly before he reached the ship Luke stopped, eyeing her in sceptic disbelief: “What a piece of junk.” Satine had to agree, the spaceship looked like it ha

d seen better days and she doubted it would last longer than a few weeks from now. Yet she had been traveling in far worse ships during her time on the run. As long as she got them out of here fast and save, she didn´t care much about her appearance.  
Like on command the tall figure of Han Solo appeared on the boarding ramp. “She'll make point five beyond the speed of light. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've added some special modifications myself.” Luke´s gaze stayed sceptical. He had never left Tatooine before and it was obvious he had hoped to make his first trip to out of space with a machine that looked a little more, well, secure. Yet Han ignored the boy and turned towards the couple. “We're a little rushed, so if you'll hurry aboard, we'll get out of here.”

Ben entered the brittle ship together with the droids. Luke stayed where he was, looking unhappily at the boarding ramp leading into the black insides of the unknown machine. Satine nudged him in the side. “Come on, we don´t have much time left. It´s not as bad as it looks like. She may be old and a little bit broken, but she still seems very much functional. A trip with her won´t kill you. Also, it´s our only way out of here.” The boy still looked insecure, yet sighted in agreement. With one last look at the desolate planet he had grown to love and hate equally, he started moving forward, leaving everything he´d ever known behind.


	5. The Force (You Got It)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The flight on the Millenium Falcon  
> Lot´s of Luke´s training, very sceptic Han Solo and a very unpleasant surprise

Ben hated flying. He always had and still did and this flight only reminded him of why.

He had had a lot of troubled take-offs and millions of space chases with hostile fighters. But back in his time it was him or at least his reckless former padawan who did the daredevil manoeuvres. And no matter how much he hated Anakin´s flying style, at least he could trust his skills. This was far worse. The lad seemed to have at least some experience at outrunning imperial TIE-Fighters, yet still they got nearly shut down at least seven times. It had occurred what Satine had dread: Someone had found their track and informed an imperial patrol. And though the Empire should still be clueless about their actual identities, being chased wasn´t very high on the list of things he missed from his life as a Jedi.

When Han Solo had finally managed the jump to light speed, leaving the enemy behind, Ben felt more relieved than he could ever remember. And Luke definitely felt that way too. The poor boy had been terrified by the laser blasts following their ship, having never experienced anything like this. He had done his best to hide his feelings, but Ben had felt them nonetheless. Threepio´s not that so optimistic comments had only increased the tension in the cockpit.

Now they were all sitting in the falcon´s lounge area, minding their own business. Satine had – not after some “I told you so” looks in his direction – tried to reach a news sender on the holonet, desperate to get back on track after the very rare news communication system on Tatooine - with very little success. The connection was even worse than at their old home and after a few minutes everyone had begged her to stop. After that she went on a search for any kind of newspaper – with even less success. The owners of this ship obviously didn´t care about politics.

As she had asked Chewbacca about any recent news the Wookie had just shrugged and groaned they didn’t care about which flag reigned across the galaxy as long as they didn´t mind their business. After that she had stopped her efforts and tried to distract herself by watching Threepio losing over and over again against Chewbacca in games of dejarik.

Ben´s thoughts drifted to what might happen once they reached Alderaan. This had something to do with the rebellion, of that he was certain. Bail Organa had always fought for democracy, had always worked against Palpatine even when they weren´t yet sure who the intriguer was. Once the Empire was declared, he and some other senators started building a rebellion against Palpatine´s reign.

It had started as a small group of even less planets, working in the underground to hide and safe those hunted by the Empire, but by now it had grown to a real organisation which more and more openly fought against the Sith lord´s injustice and cruelty. Their contact over the last years had been rare, it had been difficult enough to send messages into the Outer rim, controverse opinions were even more dangerous to transport. Every few months Ben had met up with Fulcrum, Bail´s most trusted spies, to exchange news. The fact that his friend had sent his own daughter to bring him a message showed how significant this matter must be. He could only hope the senator wasn´t in danger.

He was even more troubled by the unknown whereabouts of Leia Organa. If Vader really had the princess in control not only would her life be in grave danger but also her soul. Would Vader recognise her features that screamed the name of his wife? Would he recognise his stubborn attitude in her behaviour? Would he sense her connection to the force, shielded and untrained, yet stronger than in most of theother Jedi? And if he did, what would he do about it? Would he bring her to the Emperor, selling her soul and making her Palpatine´s new apprentice? Or would he decide to train her himself, as revenge on the man who lied to him about the whereabout of his own child?

Ben´s thoughts were racing. He tried to meditate, releasing his emotions into the force, but he wasn´t able to concentrate. His fear for the ones he loved dominated his will. He simply cared to much, he always had, even for this girl he only met for a few hours as she had been an infant. This ability had left him shattered at the end of the war, yet it also was the only thing that kept him from getting insane. Now he would have to learn to let go anew.

His gaze fell onto the young farm boy, sitting in a corner, lost in his own thoughts. Ben smiled ever so slightly. Yes, he really cared to much. Especially for this boy. In that moment he looked exactly like his father had all those years ago, on their flight to Coruscant, filled with sorrow of the loss of his family and home as well as with fear of the unknown lying ahead of him. Back then Ben had seen Anakin only as an “another pathetic lifeform” he had to look after, a little boy with whom his own master seemed to replace him. Little did he know back then how much he would grow to love the annoying know-it-all.

Ben slowly raised himself and walked over to Luke. The boy looked up questioningly. “Come on, son. I did promise you to show you the ways of the force, didn´t I? We have still some hours left. Better use the time for training, shouldn´t we?”

-

Satine watched as Luke practised the basics of lightsaber combat on a small seeker robot. The boy was a fast learner, that much was certain. He had listened reverently to Ben´s monologue about the training of Padawans, the difference between the Living and the Cosmic Force and its general use. During his lecture the old Jedi flourished, visibly rejuvenating about ten years. Anyone could tell how much he had missed this training.

As the former master handed Luke over his father´s lightsaber, he literally sprayed with enthusiasm. Although the pacifist didn´t like the idea of peaceful Luke whom she had watched over nearly all his life learning another way of killing, she understood that self-defence was the most needed skill for whatever was waiting for them on this mission.

But suddenly, Ben´s face fell. He sank onto the next chair, almost faint, with a look of terror in his eyes that made her blood run cold. Luke, also noticing the sudden swift of emotion, deactivated his lightsaber. “Are you all right? What's wrong?” Ben´s voice was slow as if he had troubles pronouncing the words “I felt a great disturbance in the Force... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.” He rubbed his forehead, gaze lingering into the nowhere, as if in trance. Satine walked over and by taking his hand forced him to look at her.

“What happened? Is it about Alderaan?” “I – I don´t know. I can only pray that not. But whatever it is, it would be too cruel anywhere.” At her worried expression he tried to give her an encouraging smile, failing miserably. He took a deep breath to calm himself and turned his attention back to Luke, who was still staring rather anxious at the old man. “You'd better get on with your exercises.”

“Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs. I told you I'd outrun 'em” came a cheerful voice from the dooway, followed by a smirking Han Solo. Satine only rolled her eyes at that comment, biting back a sassy retour, the near-death-experience of their flight still gripped her to the marrow. Ben was polite enough to pass over that commend. The pilot took the free sitting space, as well as an offended look around. “Don't everyone thank me at once. Anyway, we should be at Alderaan about oh-two-hundred hours.”

He then too joined in watching Luke by his exercises. The boy managed to reflect most of the seeker robot´s blasts, yet after some time it found a gap in his defence, hitting him in the leg and causing him to tumble over. Han cracked in a burst of laughter at that sight. “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” Luke deactivated his weapon and turned offendedly to the cynic. “You don't believe in the Force, do you?” Han sighed at the naivety of his counterpart. “Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.”

Satine snorted. Han´s head flung towards her. “What?” ”Nothing” she answered in a voice that said everything but nothing. 

“You´re not trying to tell me that an educated lady like you believes in this nonsense?”

“Well, it seems like you haven´t seen enough strange things in your oh-so-long life. Never objects fly without any logical reason? Never seen laserblasts reflected by bare hands? Never seen a Jedi? You must be old enough to have witnessed the Green Jedi on Corellia.”

“Darling” (Satine snorted again at this form of address) “You don´t expect me to take legends and stories for facts, do you? The Jedi are nothing more than a relict of an old bunch of tricksters, nothing but ghosts of a past that only exists in the storytelling of old fossils like your dear husband. I only believe in what I have witnessed myself.”

Nineteen years. It had been nineteen years and the kids already saw the Jedi as nothing than a group of tricksters, the Republic as a bunch of stories, “Strange” she said, her voice dripping of sarcasm, “never realised I was married to a ghost.”

Ben had followed their interaction quietly, a meaningful smile on his lips. Without a word to the sceptic he got up, took a pilot´s helmet from the wall and placed it on Luke´s head. The visor blocked the boy´s sight completely, leaving him in the dark. **“** I suggest you try it again, Luke. This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct” the old man instructed. Luke laughed in disbelief, shaking his head “With the blast shield down, I can't even see. How am I supposed to fight?” “Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them” was all Ben replied before taking back his previous position, observant watching Luke´s every move.

Han only sceptically shook his head and turned his attention to the control panel behind him. The droids and Chewbacca on the other hand had stopped their game to watch the young apprentice´s exercise. Luke stood in the middle of the room, the lightsaber steady and upraised, listening carefully to the sound of the small robot. It flew haltingly in front of his head before it suddenly stroke. The boy swung the sword around, trying to block the laserbolt but only hit air.

He let out a small yelp as the blast hit him and made a movement as if to remove the helmet but was stopped by his teacher. “Stretch out with your feelings.” The boy rose again his weapon and stayed in his position, each muscle strained in concentration. The seeker again flew around the steady figure, stopping sometimes before suddenly making a dive to shoot him in the leg – but failing, as the pupil managed to reflect its bold.

Luke deactivated his weapon an removed his helmet, revealing a beaming face. Ben tapped him on the shoulder, a proud smile on his face “You see, you can do it.”

“I call it luck.” The old man didn´t even bother turning around completely before he retorted to the pilot, the same knowing smile on his lips as before. “In my experience, there's no such thing as luck.”

Han still was unimpressed. “Look, going good against remotes is one thing. Going good against the living? That's something else.” Satine could only roll her eyes at so much cynic arrogance.

At this moment a small light on the control panel started flashing, attracting Han´s attention. **“** Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan.”

He stood up, gave his first mate a wink and headed back to the cockpit. Satine followed them with her eyes, feeling how the uneasiness returned to her body in the bare blink of an eye.

Luke on the other hand was still hyped by his previous success. “You know, I did feel something. I could almost see the remote.” Ben gave him another proud smile “That's good. You have taken your first step into a larger world.” And with that, the young apprentice and his long-out-of-business master followed them to the front.

-

**“** Stand by, Chewie, here we go. Cut in the sublight engines.” The passengers watched, some exited, some tense, as the stars outside the window turned from blue into long white stripes, before turning into black.

Suddenly the whole ship got shaken by battering asteroids. And where once had been Alderaan, the bright peaceful planet, a symbol of rebellion and hope, was now left nothing but rocks and the yawning void of space.


	6. The Planet of Beauty and The Moon of Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Arrival at the Death Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I´m sorry it took me so long for updating. I´m a bit struggling with school and life in general. Yet I have holidays right now and the next chapter is half-finnished, so I hope I will update again during the next two weeks?
> 
> A huge thank you for everyone reading this fic, and for giving kudos and comment! I´m really grateful for that!

Satine stared in horror into the black void in front of her. Into the nothing. It couldn´t be. A planet couldn´t simply stop existing. And there was nothing in this galaxy powerful enough to destroy a planet. Except… Except the rumours were true. Rumours so terrible it had even made its way into the outback of Tatooine. Rumours about a new weapon of the Empire, powerful enough to destroy whole cities, even planets. Rumours so surreal that Satine hadn´t believed them, had assumed they were mere exaggerations of a new type of stardestroyers or something of that like. But now, staring at the few boulders and asteroids, the only relic of the once so bright planet, she had to realise that the rumours hadn´t been exaggerations at all, but the pure truth.

Helplessness and an overwhelming grief mingled with her terror, nearly cutting off her air. Alderaan had been her paragon, her ideal of a pacific planet, full of live and light, without any dark shadows hanging over the bright cities and high mountains. She had visited it once, had admired the beauty of its nature and the people living in harmony with it, so different to the desolate and destroyed earth outside of Mandalore´s spheres. The Planet of Beauty it had been called, not only because of its landscape, but also because of its rich culture and arts. It had been everything Satine had dreamed Mandalore to be. And yet now it was gone, living on only in memories and tales, something the Empire had also mastered to destroy, as seen on the Jedi. 

But not only the planet had gone extinct, millions of people alongside with it. Peaceful people, civilians, children, eldest, people who should be protected by the government, not be destroyed. People, Queen Breha had fought all her life of to guarantee their safety. She had been one of Satine´s rare friends, maybe the only one next to Padmé and Ben she had ever called so. Breha had been her idol, just like her planet, having achieved everything Satine had so desperately longed for. Now she was gone, nothing more than dust in space.

But why? Why Alderaan? Had the Empire found out about the Organa´s connection to the rebel alliance? Was this an example to show the galaxy what would happen to them if they turned against the Empire? And what had happened to Leia? Oh force, Leia! She should have thought about the girl before. Had she been on the planet when it happened? Or was she still in the control of Darth Vader? Was she even still alive? Force, if she had gotten killed…

“What's going on?” Luke´s irritated voice tore her from her thoughts. Han frowned at the dash-board, trying to regain control over the ship. “Our position is correct, except... no, Alderaan!” he absently answered the boy. That only added to Luke´s confusion. “What do you mean? Where is it?” He looked questioning to Ben who also had frozen, too shocked by what had been done here. Han leaned over to push some buttons on Chewbacca´s side of the cockpit. “That´s what I'm trying to tell you, kid. It ain't there. It's been totally blown away.” “What? How?”  
“Destroyed... by the Empire!” Ben´s voice was weary, his eyes full of the same horrific shock as Satine´s. Han´s head flung to the old man in disbelief. “The entire starfleet couldn't destroy the whole planet. It'd take a thousand ships with more fire power than I've...” “Do you have another explanation for this?” Sat-ine interrupted him, her gaze still lingering on the asteroids outside the cockpits. The pilot stared at her for a few seconds, opening his mouth and closing it again without a word. A beep from the control panel saved him from his misery. “There's another ship coming in.” “Maybe they know what happened.” Luke said, still trying to come to terms with everything. 

The falcon got shaken by another explosion, not far from the cockpit. An imperial TIE fighter raced across the screen, overtaking the smuggler´s ship, and flew off into the distance. Luke seemed much more concerned by this sight than by the lost planet, at least this was a threat he could grasp. “It followed us!” Ben tightened, though slowly shook his head, his eyes following the small ship. “No. It's a short-range fighter.”  
Han´s face showed nothing than utterly confusion. “There aren't any bases around here. Where did it come from?” “It sure is leaving in a big hurry. If they identify us, we're in big trouble.” Luke said hastily, slowly panicking. “Not if I can help it. Chewie...jam it's transmissions.” Han switched some levers on the control panel and took up pursuit. “It'd be as well to let it go. It's too far out of range”, Satine tried to stop him, but the smuggler only smirked. “Not for long.” The engines grew louder as the falcon recorded speed, slowly closing the distance between them and the fighter. 

“A fighter that size couldn't get this deep into space on its own.” Ben wondered aloud, a frown on his face, as he watched the fighter and the star behind it growing larger. “It must have gotten lost, been part of a convoy or something”, Luke tried to explain. “Well, he ain't going to be around long enough to tell anyone about us.” Han commented, still steering towards the small ship. Luke pointed at the now remarkably larger star in front of them: “Look at him. He's headed for that small moon.” “I think I can get him before he gets there... he's almost in range.” 

Suddenly Ben´s eyes widened as the moon transformed into something else. “That's no moon! It's a space station.” “It's too big to be a space station.” Han tried to deny the obvious, staring out of the cockpit in disbelief at the giant battle station, disguised as a populated moon, menacing coming nearer and nearer. “I have a very bad feeling about this” Luke murmured, speaking for all of them.  
Han hastily switched some levers on the control panel, slowly realising the real threat. “Yeah, I think your right. Full reverse! Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power.” Chewbacca roared in agreement, reaching over his head to press some buttons that made the ship shudder and the engines roar. Yet nothing happened. Their course remained unaltered, the Falcon still slowly but steadily drifting forward. 

“Why are we still moving towards it?” Luke´s voice now had reached a serious level of panic that was mirrored in the pilot´s face. “We're caught in a tractor beam! It's pulling us in!” “But there's gotta be something you can do!” “There's nothin' I can do about it, kid. I'm in full power. I'm going to have to shut down. But they're not going to get me without a fight!”

Ben broke out of his rigidity as he shook his head and put a calming hand on the smuggler´s shoul-der. “You can't win. But there are alternatives to fighting.” One of the things the war and his rela-tionship to a pacifist had taught him.  
The Falcon now had reached the port doors of the giant space station, dragging them into a hangar filled with stormtroopers, blasters ready for action. “Well, you better hurry with your smart-ass plan before we´ve all ended as cannon fodder.” 

-

The smuggling compartments were tight and musty, yet perfectly blended into the floor so that they made an ideal hiding spot – at least until the troopers scanned the ship for liveforms, which would happen sooner or later. Ben, the shut-down droids and Satine were squeezed together in one compartment, leaving Luke, Chewie and Han in the other. They sat there silently, hardly daring to move as they tried to make out any of the talking outside in the hangar – with little success. 

Suddenly Ben stiffened. There was an itching at the back of his mind, a light pull on a bond that had been cut nearly two decades ago. Yet as reached out into the Force to find the source, there was no brightness, no reminding of his brother and son, but a dark presence, full of hate, anger and grief, a presence he had not felt since…  
His head was filled with the cries of pain and hate of the man burning in front of him, his vision blurred of ash, heat and tears. He pushed the memory aside, concealing it in the back of his mind. He should have expected him to be here, to oversee this bat-tlestation. He needed to distract him, keep him occupied so the others would be able to flee. He wouldn´t fail another Skywalker. Even if he had always dreaded of this reunion.

Satine noticed Ben´s change of pose and watched him worriedly. He ignored her searching gaze, as well as his circling thoughts and tried to concentrate on the steps over their heads, as two stormtroopers scanned the ship. As they had left, he silently counted till ten before carefully removing the panel over their heads.

Opposite of them, Luke´s and Han´s head popped out of the ground. “Boy, it's lucky you had these compartments.” Luke´s voice was still bright as ever, sounding relieved. “I use them for smuggling. I never thought I'd be smuggling myself in them.” Han threw a derogatory look at Ben. “This is ridicu-ous. Even if I could take off, I'd never get past the tractor beam.”

“Leave that to me!” Ben´s voice was calm, showing none of the mix of feelings that had overrun him just seconds ago, as he pushed himself out of the compartment. “Damn fool. I knew that you were going to say that!” The old Jedi stopped his movement and gave him a significant look. “Who's the more foolish... the fool or the fool who follows him?” 

The smuggler rolled his eyes and shook his head, as he climbed out of his hideout, positioning himself next to the door alongside Chewbacca, a secret reception committee for the next stormtroopers.


	7. Parting is such Sweet Sorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Farewell Obi-Wan/Satine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised - the next chapter.
> 
> Due to the new lockdown I might (and I hope to) find more time for writing during school, but I can´t promise anything.

As soon as the door had closed behind them, Satine removed the white monster of a helmet. Force, how could anyone wear those helmets longer than a few minutes, let alone fight? Especially with that restricted sight that made it hard to make out anything not right in front of her. Let alone the heat! One could think life on a desert planet would toughen one up against such inconveniences, yet she still felt like melting away. Maybe it was because the last time she had been stuck in an armour was in her young teenage years, over forty years ago. 

The heat on the contrary only mirrored her inner rage at the most prior events, her blue eyes sparkling with anger at the smuggler ahead of her.  
“We agreed on stunning, not killing!” she hissed at Han Solo, who flicked his hair out of his sight, surveying the gantry and its dead officers. He, too, was wearing one of the armours of the stormtroopers sent on their ship for scanning, as well as Luke. Ben had refused to take the remaining fourth armour, claiming he was in no need of disguise.

“You know, between his howling and your blasting everything in sight, it's a wonder the whole station doesn't know we're here.” Luke agreed, his blood running high with adrenaline of the action bare seconds ago. His hair stuck to his sweaty brow, making him resemble his father even more.

They both stared at the three corpses. Imperials, yes – yet humans. Maybe they had had a family relying on them, parents that´ll mourn for them, or children who´d now grow up fatherless. Force, she hated war and the violence it brought.

Han didn´t even so much as bother to turn around, still looking through the small window from which they could oversee the hangar. “Bring them on! I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around.” He waved his head in an impatient gesture.  
Satine rolled her eyes. “If you´d ever truly been in an open fight against the Empire you would speak different. They´ll eliminate you before you´ve even raised your oh-so-loved blaster.” “I´ve been long enough on Carida to know my enemy and my odds, your highness” he shot back with this nerf-killing arrogance of him.  
Satine only snorted at that. “Well, despite that I am no highness, fighting as cadet in the Imperial academy isn´t the same as standing on the other end. Believe me, with shooting your way out as only solution you won´t stand two seconds. And even with a mature strategic you might not stand a chance.” Her voice turned bitter at those words. Mandalore had been prepared, leaded by her sister, who, no matter how much she hated what she had done, had learned and mastered warfare in those years on Concordia. And yet they had stood no chance.

Threepio´s voice broke her gloomy thoughts. The golden droid stood next to his whistling blue friend in front of the large computer panel occupying most of the office´s front wall. “We found the computer outlet, sir.” 

Ben walked over, his brown cloak waving behind him. She had asked him to at least change into something other than the Jedi clothing, but he would not listen. He only said as long as he stayed unseen and undetected, as it was his intention, it didn´t matter what he wore. But she knew there was more to it. She hadn´t seen him wear anything else since that fateful day on Mandalore, as he had stolen one of the guard´s uniforms. With the extinction of the order, dressing himself in their traditional clothing was his own silent way of paying tribute to his lost friends and family, the only physical reminder he had of them. So she hadn´t pushed him further. No matter how foolish his behaviour was, she could comprehend him all too well. 

The old man bend over one of the monitors, fingers flying over the panel as he typed in some commands, manipulating the system in order to granting a non-imperial droid access to the datas without causing alarm. How often had he done this during the wars, or had watched his padawan do the same while being on guard? 

Seconds later he gave the waiting astromech an encouraging nod. “Plug in. He should be able to interpret the entire Imperial computer network.”  
Artoo rolled forward, plugging one of his foldable arms into the computer socket. A few moments later he started beeping. “He says he's found the main computer to power the tractor beam that's holding the ship here. He'll try to make the precise location appear on the monitor” Threepio translated.  
The monitors came to life, projecting a technical map of the Death Star. Artoo highlighted some spots along to the protocol droid´s translations. “The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations. A power loss at one of the terminals will allow the ship to leave.”  
The other four studied the map carefully. Ben was the first to draw back, a plan manifested in his mind. “I don't think you boys can help. I must go alone.” He said in his ever-calm voice, mostly addressing Luke, and headed towards the door. “Whatever you say. I've done more that I bargained for on this trip already.” Han´s expression was as arrogant and bored as ever. 

Yet Luke´s face reflected a mixture between worry and excitement for action as he reached for the old man. “I want to go with you.” Ben shook his head slightly. No matter the boy´s good intentions, it was far too dangerous. Especially with what exactly he had in mind of doing.

“Be patient, Luke. Stay and watch over the droids.” The boy started protesting, pointing his head at where Han and Chewbacca leant on the wall. “But he can...” Ben interrupted him, laying as much earnest and sincerity in his voice as possible. “They must be delivered safely or other star systems will suffer the same fate as Alderaan. Your destiny lies along a different path than mine.” His lips curled into a genuine smile as he laid his hand on the young boy´s shoulder and looked him into the eyes – those blue eyes with that slightly disappointed and accusing look he had seen so often on Anakin. “The Force will be with you... always!”

Ben squeezed the young boy´s shoulder in a silent goodbye and gave him an encouraging smile. Smiling back sadly, Luke went to the back of the room, next to Han and Chewie, making room for the old Jedi to bid his goodbyes to his wife in private. 

Satine pushed herself of the wall where she had watched their farewell and moved over to her husband, a sad smile on her lips. For a moment they just stared at each other. It had no purpose to ask him if she might join him, because she already knew the answer. Knew it, because she had felt him tense at their arrival, had noted how he had gotten more silent and sincere. 

“He is here, right?” she asked quietly. She didn´t need to say a name, they both knew who she was talking about. If Ben´s tenseness hadn´t given it away, the look with which he had stared at Luke´s face surely had.

“Yes.” His voice was steady, yet weary, sorrow and resignation in his eyes that always filled them when talking about that topic. Satine nodded. She knew what it meant for him, to possibly have to confront his lost son again, after all those years of grieving. Because no matter how hard he had tried to tell himself that Anakin was dead, destroyed by the Sith, that there was not a single piece of him left behind Vader´s cold black mask, this man, this monster still had once been his beloved padawan and he had always dreaded the day he had to fight him one more time. Because he knew would be as incapable of killing him as on that fateful day on Mustafar.

And yet, Satine was very aware of the fact that Ben would still encounter the Sith lord, no matter the costs, if it meant getting her and Luke out of this place alive. Her dark vision, that had followed her since the appearance of those two droids slowly began to become reality. Deep down they both knew they wouldn´t see each other again, that he wouldn´t make it out of this battle alive. 

“Do you know about her? Is she also here? Does he know?” she asked. Ben was silent for a while, sinking into the force. It would make sense for her to be here, but they couldn´t just act on guess-es. He did have felt another presence, brighter than Vader´s, yet far too small and wellshielded for him to tell who it was. “I don´t know” he confessed. “It could be. But I´m certain that he has no clue of who he has captured. Otherwise we would have heard about it.” A relief, albeit a small one.

“I let R2 check on it” she answered. The Jedi caught the unspoken words behind it: And if he found her, she would do anything to get her out. “Be careful” he replied, voice soft and full of worry. 

“Only if you do the same. No unnecessary heroics. I can protect myself, you know.” Her voice was hoarse, a lump in her throat, as she surveyed him sharply. He sighed. “I´m well aware of that. But you know as well as I that I can´t make any promises about that” Ben answered weary, a growing sorrow in his eyes. She tried to swallow her own sight. This was the main disadvantage of being married to a Jedi – there was always the risk of them getting themselves killed in some act of (unnecessary) selflessness.  
“I know, but still… At least try it. I can´t raise this idiot and those bunch of droids all on my own. You know first-hand how difficult it is to handle one of that trait, but two…” 

His gaze turned soft. “They couldn´t be in better hands.” She rolled her eyes, hiding her growing worry. “I don´t remember you as one to hide behind excuses” “I don´t remember you as one to shrink from responsibility” he shot back. The memory made both smile slightly. Words from an argument long in the past, from another lifetime.  
Ben´s gaze turned softer, as he reached out and cupped her cheek with his hand. “I´ll come back. One way or the other, I promise.” She leaned her forehead against his in answer. 

For a moment they just stood there, tightly embrancing each other one last time. Until Ben broke the silence. “I have to go now, before he senses my presence and I put you all in danger. Get them safely out of here, both of them. I´ll keep your back free. And don´t try to get in my way.” She snorted quietly. “You´re still quite the general, aren´t you?” “And you are still an insufferable dutchess.” A small attempt to lighten the mood, yet it made both chuckle slightly.

“Now go play the hero if you so clearly long for trouble.” She forced herself to loose herself out of his grip and shoved him towards the door, a forced smile on her lips. It was mirrored on Ben´s face who now looked into her eyes as seeing right through her, into her very soul, like he had always been able to. As he spoke, his voice was a mere whisper, yet utterly sincere, without the usual mocking subtone that had sometimes driven her insane.

“Remember, my dear Satine: I´ve loved you always. I always will.”

Her heard clenched at the sound of this words - her words. It sent her back to that fateful day all those years ago, lying in his arms, stabbed and barely alive. She´d meant them as her last words, being certain she would die – and it was obvious Ben meant it the same way. Yet back then some supernatural force had spared her, granted her to live on. Maybe they would grant him the same, in one way or another. 

“I know.” That was all she got out, tongue-tied by her wave of feelings. His smile widened slightly, as if this was the reply he´d expected. Then he turned around and opened the door. Having to watch the only steady thing in her life go, having him to face this threat alone after they hadn´t de-parted in years, was maybe the hardest thing she had ever done.

As he´d nearly crossed the doorstep, she cleared her throat. “You know -” she started, hoarsely. The sound of her voice made him turn around, a questioning look on his face. The corner of her mouth crooked slightly upwards. “I´m still not sure about that beard”. His face enlightened by those words with his typical smirk which she had grown to love so dearly.  
And with one last nod the old Jedi vanished behind the closing door.

**Author's Note:**

> Critisism (opinions, pointing out errors, suggestions) are always welcome!


End file.
